sorry just caught on to the thread, very interesting. Will be watching your progress like many others and gaining valuable information for when It comes time for us to build our greenhouse. Thanks for pioneering the way!

I know you have started already but wanted to to mention a book that others (or yourself) could find some benefit from, it’s called “The Earth sheltered solar greenhouse book” by Mike Oehler he is also the author of the “$50 and up underground house book”

In Mikes book he describes how his greenhouse evolved through trial an error, first from a “hot box” to his modern design incorporating cold sinks and insulated earth walls etc. His experiments took place in the mountains of Idaho where he homesteaded (he very much fits the characteristics of a woodgaser) His design uses either recycled materials and posts for the framing and digs it into the side of a hill. The main difference I’ve seen with mikes design vs every other earth sheltered greenhouse design (wanipini (or however you spell that) is his use of cold sinks.
Mike digs the front of the greenhouse down 4 feet or so (described in the book) below the frost line with the idea that cold air will fall down into the “cold sink” be warmed by the earth and then rise again creating a natural convection cycle and keeping the cold air from hovering on the plants as they are in a raised bed of sorts above the sink.

anyway just thought I’d pt that out there for others as I’ve found the information you and the others contributing to be very helpful. Good luck and we love lots of picture

The recently dryed Panonian sea left a thick bed of super compressed silica sand in this area. It was mined near here for a nearby glass making factory. It makes great soil mixed with a bit of clay and organic matter. No need for any tools when harvesting potatoes. Just hands.
Its not hard to dig, just slow and WERY tough on tools. Its wery abrasive. Sparks cly from pick all the time.

Little by little every day. I like that.
People in our area used to be known as cheap, like the Scottish. Goes way back to when times where ruff. There´s a saying around here that “little by little always adds up to a lot” and that is very true. Adds up faster than most realise. Keep up the good work.
Just one word of caution. I saw your son was with you. I don´t know how stabil that compressed sand is but make sure you don´t get buried in case of caving in.
I dug for laying new sewer 10 years ago. I have a basement and the level of the sewer is deep. Shoveling the dirt up onto the ground the walls got twice my own height and one day one side caved in and I was stuck up to my chest. I was lucky enough not having head down at the moment. Could not move no matter how hard I tried. Ended up digging myself loose.

Haha, then we are alike in one other way the north Alpes region, Gorenjska, where l originate is known for cheapness and unhospitality. Endless jokes on our account. Like “how do you know where the border of Gorenjska is?” “You start seeing toilet paper drying in the front yard”
I guess this cheapness gene brought me to DOW, so thats good.

Ouch. Thats a preety terrifiing experiance…
Thanks for the concern!
Not much of a problem now, the walls are rock hard about a foot under the surface, but its gonna be hard to start digging the cellar cave. The toughness increases with depth, and at about 3m depth l have no more fear, you can see how hard it is in the link above, but untill l reach that depth, caution will have to be taken. Allso, in heavy machinery is frequently driven on top (picture in post 38 with tractor loading the sand-the cellar will be right under) so untill l have at least 3 m of sandstone above my head l will reinforce the hallways (stears) with oak beams, like in a mine.

Ha! The biggest current danger for my son right now is the axe. He loves it and when he sees me hiting that stone with it he wants to do it too. Culd easyly cut his fingers so l am usualy not happy of him being around.

Been digging every morning for a good hour a day for the past two months. Its near completion. A couple of days of hard work and maybee one more re forge and its done. Then soil loading and construction building.